KENNY CAUTIONS AGAINST FARE INCREASES

Posted on June 26, 2011 12:12 PM   |   Permanent Link   

Dublin North East TD and Oireachtas Transport Committee Member Seán Kenny today said that he was unsure if the Minister for Transport should proceed with increasing public transport fares.

"I have spent the last couple of days researching the issue to see whether increases in public transport fares led to increases in revenue or whether price increases led public transport use to fall. I have to say I found next to nothing on the areas of research into public transport in Ireland - the most recent piece of research on the issue that I found that specifically related to Ireland was from 1984 - clearly this is very old research now and cannot be relied upon.", Deputy Kenny said.

"Price elasticities are used in economic studies to show the change to how much is demanded of a service (in this case public transport) to a change in its price. The problem in estimating these changes comes in the fact that other changes also occur, such as income and employment changes, population changes and other methods of transport.", Deputy Kenny continued.

Deputy Kenny went on to explain that there are differences to all of these factors in different places - for example, public transport is different in Dublin, Galway, Cork and Limerick, and all of these cities would be different to each other.

"Any comparisons between cities must be treated with great care. What is needed for serious research to be undertaken in each of these different cities to see what effect increases in public transport fares actually has. Improvements in Irish public transport are clearly necessary. Ease of use of public transport is one aspect of quality and in this respect the anticipated arrival of integrated ticketing is very welcome. It is also important that different modes of transport have the correct pricing attached to them, but I am unsure if public transport fares should be increased at this stage - research really does need to be conducted before making a decision on this", Deputy Kenny said.

"I call on the Minister for Transport, to back up any proposals to increase public transport fares with the relevant market and economic research. If there is no such research, I would be of the view that perhaps he should not sanction public transport fare increases.", Deputy Kenny concluded.